Glastonbury Festival 2010 Friday, Somerset 25/06/2010

Michael and Emily Eavis promised their 40th anniversary celebrations would be Glastonbury’s most successful yet (as they always do), but neither of them could of imagined what mother nature had in-store. Usually, by the Friday morning much of the site is a seething quagmire, yet this year the scorching sun had fried the earth and every can of Strongbow in sight.

As we’ve come to learn over the years, when it says Special Guests in the line-up, they’re gonna be pretty damn special, and this year was no different. We hiked up to The Park in the blistering sun, Glasto’s highest stage, and was surrounded by only a few other punters, but when Johhny Greewood’s guitar was placed on the stage hundreds of people swarmed around us, before Thome Yorke sauntered out from behind the curtain. Yorke played through several tracks from his solo album The Eraser, while sporting a Boris Becker style head band. Later, Greenwood made an appearance, accompanying Yorke on his solo work before the two launched into Karma The Police and Fade In Out to induce the festival’s first sing along moment.

With barley time to contain ourselves, we rushed over to our tent to restock our now mulled-Strongbow, before witnessing Snoop “What’s my mother fucking name” Dogg’s expletive ridden set on the Pyramid Stage. The Dogfather played through tracks from his early Deathrow records days, right up to more recent tracks ‘Beautiful’ ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ and a cover of 50 Cent’s PIMP. Where his set excelled is where so many bands fail. Snoop worked the crowd throughout, engaging everyone in some gansta- rap chanting, before climaxing with his breakthrough hit ‘Who Am I? (What’s my name?)’, which had the sunburnt crowd, including Dizzee Rascal, singing Snoop Doggy Dog at the top of their voices.

If only Daman Albarn had taken some notes from Snoop’s set, Friday night might have been very different. Although Snoop kicked it off, Gorillaz’s never managed to get going and more importantly engage the crowd in the way a Glastonbury headline act should. There could be a few reasons for this, but the rushed prep for the show and the band’s attempt to recreate their original recordings, and not develop them for the live stage, seemed to be their biggest downfall. Although they had the huge animation running throughout the set, it has to be said that Gorillaz songs don’t make very good Friday night fodder. Which is why, like many, we left during the set to catch the end of the Flaming Lips’ show, where Wayne Coyne didn’t disappoint. Ending with his trademark crowd surf inside an inflatable ball, with plume’s of confetti covering the crowd, all soundtracked by the majestic ‘Do You Realize’ – Wayne had just managed to salvage everyone’s Friday night.